Room to grow

Opposition from Lincoln scholars stops librarys plan

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Lincoln scholars and the librarians who serve them
are celebrating — oh so quietly! — the newly approved plans to
preserve the “Lincoln Room,” the hub of Lincoln and Illinois
research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Last winter, the 25,000-volume collection was facing
a bad breakup: A plan to overhaul the entire UIUC library system included a
proposal to splinter the decades-old collection and disperse it among other
parts of the system. John Hoffman, curator of the collection, incited a
well-mannered revolt by authoring a petition that got passed around by way
of the Internet and signed by more than 100 Lincoln Room patrons and fans
[see Dusty Rhodes, “Bookworms,” Jan. 10]. Hoffman’s efforts apparently paid off. Last
month — after collecting input through town-hall meetings,
departmental discussions, and e-mail — the committee in charge of
creating “new service models” for the library system issued its
final report. The proposal to scatter the collection had been replaced by a
proposal to move it from its current inconvenient location into a better
space. “It would be ideal, actually,” Hoffman
says. “It would allow for browsing without being insecure. It’s
a great move, if they can go ahead and carry it out. It’s a matter of
priorities.”According to the report, the proposal to disperse the
Illinois History and Lincoln Collections drew “substantial”
discussion demonstrating that the IHLC program is “deeply valued by
its core constituents.”UIUC has a main library and many smaller departmental
libraries scattered across campus. The task of reorganizing them is similar
to a child’s number-tile puzzle: One unit must move to make space for
another unit to move. The “new service models” plan includes 19
proposals, some of which are mergers of existing libraries and some of
which are entirely new libraries. The mechanics of how this grand plan will
be carried out have not been determined. The plan also calls for access to be increased
through the digitization of the material and the creation of a Web portal
to the documents. Hoffman isn’t quite so keen on that concept, noting
that the result will be an emphasis on works published before 1923 —
items now in the public domain. “That’s not always the best stuff,”
Hoffman says. “Scholarship improves in any field. Some scholarship
becomes obsolete.”Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com